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Thursday morning Talking Points: Taking care of the ball a key

Talking points for a Thursday morning as preparations continue for Sunday’s game at Arizona:

1. Despite all the preaching, the turnover battle has not been going Miami’s way through the first three games.

The coaching staff put a premium on creating takeaways and taking care of the ball during the offseason and training camp, and it’s a stat that looms large against an aggressive, ball-hawking defense this week.

Through three games, Arizona is tied for ninth with a turnover ration of plus-2 (four takeaways, two giveaways) while Miami is tied for 24th at minus-3 (three takeaways, six giveaways).

Ryan Tannehill got a quick baptism in the importance of turnovers when his three interceptions turned the tide in an opening loss at Houston, and Tannehill followed that up with a pick-six against the Jets Sunday as Miami saw a 10-3 lead evaporate in the early minutes of the third quarter Sunday.

Daniel Thomas, meanwhile, has lost two fumbles in as many games.

Against a team such as, say, Oakland, such mistakes aren’t as crucial. Against an Arizona defense, which has allowed only two touchdowns this season and ranks second in points allowed at 39, one blunder can turn a game.

That’s just what happened to Philadelphia at the University of Phoenix Stadium Sunday. Trailing 17-0 in the final minutes of the first half, the Eagles had driven deep into Cardinals territory and seemed poised to get back into the game. Then Michael Vick was hit from behind on a rollout and fumbled, James Sanders picked it up and ran 93 yards for a TD as time expired, and the Cardinals took a commanding 24-0 lead into the locker room. Game over.

Tannehill, Thomas or anyone else who has their hands on the ball need to hang onto it. Or else.

2. The challenge only gets more difficult for Sean Smith and Richard Marshall the next two weeks.

Marshall had his hands full _ and then some _ with Santonio Holmes last week. The Belle Glade native had one of the best _ and busiest _ days of his career, when he was targeted 14 times by Mark Sanchez and caught nine of those throws for 147 yards. He saved the best for last, his 38-yard reception in overtime setting up the Jets’ game-winning 33-yard field goal.

Holmes is good, but he’s a few rungs below the elite receivers the Dolphins face in the next two weeks, Arizona’s Larry Fitzgerald and Cincinnati’s A.J. Green. Both are in the same class as Houston’s Andre Johnson, who torched Miami for eight receptions for 118 yards and a TD in Week 1.

Fitzgerald caught nine passes for 114 yards and a touchdown last week, in the process becoming the youngest player in NFL history to reach 700 receptions, with 707. In two games against Miami, he has 11 catches for 245 yards and a TD.

If the Dolphins have any edge against Fitzgerald _ and it’s a small one, at best _ it’s that Marshall went against him in practice last year while with Arizona. But Marshall played mostly safety for the Cardinals, not that island known as corner.

Green is only in his second year, but the former Georgia star is already looking like the second coming of Fitzgerald. He ranks third in the AFC with 21 receptions for 311 yards, a 14.8 average, and two TDs. And unlike Fitzgerald, who has had to overcome the shortcomings of quarterbacks John Skelton and Kevin Kolb, Green is paired with a rising QB star in Andy Dalton.

Defensive coordinator Kevin Coyle was seen in practice this week spending extra time with the secondary, which takes him back to his roots as secondary coach in Cincinnati the past nine years. With the past two quarterbacks Miami has faced having enjoyed 300-yard passing days, he’s got his work cut out for him.

3. Coach Joe Philbin went too far in telling his players not to address the replacement refs this week.

Discipline is nice; keeping your players’ comments off opposing teams’ bulletin boards is even better. And Philbin’s influence over the locker room has been clear in the way players have almost always kept whatever strong opinions they’ve had to themselves so far this season.

But Philbin’s edict after Monday’s Green Bay-Seattle debacle that no one address the situation regarding replacement officials is a bit overboard.

Players around the league have reacted strongly to the disgraceful sequence of events that handed Seattle a victory, and a number of the Dolphins were in that group via their Twitter accounts. But when those same Dolphins were asked their opinion after practice Wednesday, several responded that they had been ordered by Philbin to keep their mouths shut. This, as Reggie Bush pointed out, despite the fact even President Barack Obama had weighed in.

Philbin feigned surprise when asked about the order. “It’s a free country, isn’t it?” he offered. For all we know, Philbin could have been acting on orders from the league as it tried to minimize the fallout while scurrying to get a deal done with the referees that will finally put this sordid affair in the rear-view mirror.

But if it was Philbin’s decision to slap on the gag order, that’s going a bit too far.